Zay Escobar (Series)
Zay Escobar is a web comic created by Mr.Zaya, and written by Team Escobar. Zay Escobar focuses on the adventures, and at times misadvetures, of the titular Zion "Zay" Escobar, as well as his closest friends: Shabba and Vic. It is set in fictional Philadelphia, PA, and Zay has to habitually find ways to adapt and adjust in a frustrating, ever-changing modern world. Zay Escobar involves multiple scenarios in its issues involving self-referential humor, and sometimes even self-parody, as well as visual gags and other sorts of humor. Development An amateur group of illustrators from Chill Sonic Fanon Wiki came together to create a comic in late 2013. Mr.Zaya, the leader of this project and the aforementioned creator of Zay Escobar, has always been fascinated by introspection, narratives as well as story telling; these efforts brought several of ZE's elements to life. Over time, he urged himself to create the series, making the first few installments within the first day alone. He wanted to make a nonsensical yet humorous comic, and received positive reactions from peers due to it. Eventually, Team Escobar would be made up of five members: Mr.Zaya, BlurayOriginals, LegionDX, ApalloTH and ZexalSlash. Zay Escobar was created in November 2013 and comics have been produced since said date. It takes place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and focuses on the life and exploits of Zay Escobar, with his two closest friends Vic and Shabba. Although most of the comic's content is light-hearted, early on the series was meant mostly ironically, hence its bizarre, nonsensical nature. Some of the comic's content can be seen as very vulgar, albeit deliberately. Many animators and artists were cited as big influences on Mr.Zaya's own work, as well as other writers. The biggest inspirations for Zay Escobar, however, are both South Park and Cyanide and Happiness. Team Escobar, the collective name of the original creators, all had similar interests in entertainment, specifically animation and video games; this is what brought the crew together. These inspirations helped create a series reflecting the liking they took to it. As shown in the comics, many of Team Escobar's work involves easter eggs from other media, (ex. references to sports players, books, video game lore, etc.) Premise Mr.Zaya, with the help of the rest of Team Escobar, sought to create their own world and characters using their own life experiences as reference. Zay Escobar would be propelled by this idea, and reached its peak during 2014. Many of the comics are based off of the actual lives of the writers, specifically the lives of both Mr.Zaya and BlurayOriginals. With most of the webcomic being completely based in fiction, there is a great amount of comics, or at least elements in a comic, that are allusions to occurences for the two in the real world. Early Stages (2013-2015) Zay Escobar began in November 2013 as an image of a boy holding a video game in hand as a joke to fellow CSFW user SS3K. At the time, the boy had no name. However, later that same day, he was given a Persona and his own comic, and thus Zay Escobar became a series. The comics featured intentionally bad visuals. In spite of this, the comic was eventually taken more seriously, and the art style evolved over time. The original series spanned over 100 comics; however, after the series taking a turn much to the creator, Mr.Zaya's dismay, he decided to reboot it in 2015 (however, a comic would not be posted again for over 2 years). The original cast of writers were credited as Mr.Zaya, ZexalSlash, BlurayOriginals, ApolloFlare and LegionDX. The comic series was successful in its own right despite its lack of exposure, spanning 108 comics in almost two years between November 17, 2013 to July 19, 2015. Proposed Reboot (2015) In June 2015, creator Mr.Zaya decided to reboot the series after becoming disgruntled with how the series was executed after he concluded to draw Zay Escobar comics anymore. Although the series was meant to deviate from the original production, it was ultimately decided that Zay Escobar would keep its integrity. The series actually never had a reboot. Instead, a hiatus took place for over two years. Revival (2016-present) 2016 In 2016, a spinoff of the comics known as The Escobar Chronicles was written, and it had a more profound story telling style than the main series. Although the series is canon, none of the events so far have been directly translated into the main series' comic. Currently, 6 stories have been completed. The series had seemingly ended during 2015, as Mr.Zaya voiced discontent with the direction of the comics. However, he did not want to end it, but restart it. The series was further pushed back as little interest was shown for it. In a conversation, BlurayOriginals apologized to Mr.Zaya on account of what was made of the comics towards the end of its original run. 2017 As of October 10, 2017, the two-year hiatus of Zay Escobar has been broken. This would be the first comic created by Mr.Zaya in over three years; his last installment being published on May 5, 2014. Although the original illustrating crew such as BlurayOriginals and LegionDX have not published an issue, Zay Escobar is back to daily releasing. 2018 In early 2018, BlurayOriginals posted a blog post on Chill Sonic Fanon Wiki unveiling the projects he had worked on since the comic was supposedly cancelled. He also released two comics in the blog, making it his first entries since 2015. During January 2018 Mr.Zaya expanded on Icey's backstory in a series of arcs following his death at the end of 2017. Trivia * Throughout the comics, there are several easter eggs that reflect other series liked by the illustrators. * Zay Escobar's name was originally going to be Barry Escobar; however, this name was instead used for his father, Barry Escobar, Sr. * In spite of Zay Escobar being vulgar at the times, the main three characters are seldom seen swearing. * Initially, Zay Escobar was going to take place in Maryland, possibly in Baltimore, MD, which is Bluriginals' hometown. Once, even at one point it was set in fictional Jerston (which would include the real-world states such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio). Although the series takes place in fictional Philadelphia, many of the city's elements are portrayed through the likeness of both Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ, the latter being Mr.Zaya's hometown. * Due to the series' apparent cancellation, Zay Escobar never released a comic during 2016; it did not get back in action until two years removed from 2015. 2017 was technically more productive for ZE than 2015, but both years saw comics made by the same person (Blu in 2015, Zay in 2017). Links Chill Sonic Fanon WIki - Zay Escobar's site of origin Zay Escobar Creator Archive 2013/2014 Zay Escobar Creator Archive 2015 Zay Escobar Creator Archive 2017 Zay Escobar Creator Archive 2018 The Escobar Chronicles Zay Escobar Tumblr Zay Escobar Twitter